Music. After hours.

`Feast Of Fools' A Celebration Of Diversity

Colorful Fausto Fernos An Appropriate Host For Radical Faeries

March 31, 2000|By Achy Obejas.

Fausto Fernos is one very, very pretty boy.

He's got Superman blue-black hair, with sparkly blue eyes and porcelain white skin. He's maybe 5'8," 5'10" tall, and slender -- look through his photo album and it's clear he can carry off a fashionable Euro-suit when meeting Eartha Kitt, a stylish Clark Kentish pair of glasses with his Oxford shirts, a lovely pink evening gown, or even a dazzling blue aluminum foil get-up with a sweeping headpiece that might perhaps be more at home on an alien in "Star Trek."

This, according to a little comic book called "The Radical Faeries of Chicago," is Fernos' story: "Not long ago, in the darkest parts of the Puerto Rican rainforest, two Nobel prize-winning scientists, along with their 6-month-old son, were seeking the Tainas, a secret tribe of Puerto Rican Amazons. Late at night the whole family was eaten alive by a giant snake. None would have heard of this had it not been for Gran Abuelita Pingan'chixlu Tautemoc, who with her mighty sword cut the snake's head off. The couple had been crushed, but miraculously the young boy was still alive. Thus Fausto, the fire-eating drag princess, was twice born."

The annual gathering of the local Radical Faeries -- this time subtitled "Freaky Sheaky Cabaret" -- is a celebration of life, liberty and diversity. At this year's gig, Fernos will host a talk-variety show format. Guests include Jo-Jo, the king of the local club kids (last seen doing Dennis Rodman's fiery hair), circus performer Silky Jumbo, Vietnamese pop star Victoria Lamarr, drag mime Vikki Spykke, magician Joseph Ravens, and pretty much whoever else shows up. Assume dancing and cavorting until the wee hours, well after all the talk.

How did this all start? According to Fernos, the Faeries trace their lineage back to Harry Hay and the Mattachine Society in the 1950s and early '60s. "They called themselves a homophile group," Fernos says with a laugh. "And they had rather unsophisticated protests, very prim, with little protest signs and everything."

But Hay, one of the grand old men of Gay Liberation, has never been one to agitate for equal rights just so he could wear a monkey suit, get married and install a white picket fence. Since the beginning, Hay preached that gay men were shamanistic, magical creatures. And that in asking for equal rights with the rest of society, they needed to take care not to assimilate but rather to preserve and honor their own unique culture and identity.

Since 1969, Hay's philosophies have been manifested in year-round Radical Faeries communes in California, New York and, recently, The Netherlands. Not all the Faeries are gay men, and some of their events include women, children and straight men. There's a constant tension about what philosophies are included, what's possible, but the bottom line is a respect for the individual and for the Earth.

"In the Midwest, Tennessee is a kind of epicenter of Faerie activity," says Fernos. "There are a lot of rednecks there, yeah, but it's also a good place to do whatever you need to do and be left alone. And anyway, the [Faeries'] place is really, really remote."

Fernos understands firsthand about that kind of tolerance. When not busy prancing around in Faerie gear, he makes a living as a graphic designer for a variety of publications. One of his favorite regular clients is The Catholic New World, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

"It's the sweetest publication," he says, adding that when he applied for the job, he showed his full portfolio just so there wouldn't be any questions later. "You'd think it'd be like invasion of the body snatchers or something, but they're some of the most accepting, warmest people I've ever worked for."

Celebrate the Iranian new year (and you didn't know there was one . . . ) Saturday with an all-star cast of exiled Persian artists featuring Shamaeezadeh, Shohreh, Aref and Fataneh. A purely secular event, it'll feature dancing and dining until the wee hours, from 9 p.m. at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, 720 S. Michigan Ave. Special room rates are available for the weekend under the group name GLOBE.

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To get more information about events in the local Iranian exile community, write to have your name added to the Setareh list, P.O. Box 10421, Chicago, Ill. 60610. Call 773-784-0204 or 1-800-IRAN-802 for more information.